Climate deal: only the best will do

The chemical industry is a vigorous and wholehearted supporter of the drive to secure a new, global agreement to limit climate change. As world leaders gather in Paris, we urge them to adopt a binding, effective global agreement at the COP21.

Around the world, the seven million people who work in our industry are stepping up to the growing challenge of global warming: rising sea-levels, unstable weather, more frequent drought and poor harvests. Yet they are also exceptionally well-equipped to understand the consequences of climate change and to do something about it. Many, many of them are scientists and engineers. And they are straining every brain cell and sinew to discover and deliver technologies that can help us win the battle against climate change.

The chemicals industry has a key role to play in this debate. Bearing this in mind, our interest in cutting our energy usage and costs is clearly evident – today, the chemical industry produces twice as much as it did 25 years ago, but uses half as much energy per unit of product.

One of the principal achievements of our chemists is to take carbon feedstock, often in the form of oil or gas, and turn it into products essential to 21st Century living, from paints and solvents to plastics, fabrics and fertilizers.

Our enthusiasm to slash energy usage is reflected in our energy-saving achievements. Today, the chemical industry produces twice as much as it did 25 years ago, but uses half as much energy per unit of product. We’ve done this through a combination of good housekeeping, investment, and development of breakthrough technologies, such as new catalysts which cut energy needed in chemical reactions.

But this is only part of our contribution to curbing global warming. The bigger story is our massive drive to innovate and deliver products that help so many other industries and individuals worldwide cut their emissions.

Chemicals are used throughout manufacturing, worldwide, to create products to feed us, build and equip our homes, offices and hospitals, care for us, entertain us, and help us move around. Our innovations enable the rest of industry to become more energy efficient, and deliver more energy efficient products.

In the building sector, for example, we estimate that chemistry-enabled technologies can reduce energy demand by up to 41% and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70%, by 2050. Meantime the use of high-performance silica in car tyres reduces their rolling resistance – which accounts for 20% of vehicle fuel consumption – whilst improving traction in wet weather. Cars using these tyres consume 7% less fuel, emit 7% less CO2, and stop faster, making for fewer accidents and hence vehicle repairs. And without our products, the ongoing switch from inefficient incandescent light bulbs to low energy light-emitting diodes would be impossible.

Chemistry also lies at the heart of the transition to renewable energy. From turbine blades and solar panels to enzymes that help turn bio-materials into energy or deliver power from waste, our inventions enable consumers around the world to cut fossil fuel burn and emissions.

Modern chemistry was largely invented in the European Union, and the EU remains a powerhouse of chemical production, science and imagination. Enlightened and ambitious policy-making has helped make the EU a pioneer in tackling greenhouse gases. The region has set vanguard targets for cutting CO2 emissions, backed by powerful initiatives including mandatory targets, renewables subsidies, and carbon trading.

On 5 November, 20 European chemical company chief executives published an open letter backing the diplomatic effort to win a climate saving deal in Paris. We, as an industry, now argue in favour of more reliance on innovation, competitiveness and cost-efficient mechanisms in support of these policy objectives; we support the Cop21 and EU policy objectives and battle tooth and nail to do our share. EU chemicals factories are now among the most efficient in the world.

And that is precisely why the Cop21 conference needs to address the pressing need for ambitious policies worldwide so EU industries can maintain their competitiveness on the world stage, and not give way to a levelling-downward. Carbon leakage – the movement of carbon-emitting output from areas with rigorous standards to regions where requirements are laxer – should be the enemy of citizens and policymakers everywhere.

The goal of Cop21 should not be to redistribute global industry or allow dirty plants to carry on polluting whilst efficient plants are forced to close. It must be to take all necessary steps to limit global warming to 2 degrees centigrade, in keeping with the scientific recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the interest of our planet and all the life-forms which share it, nothing less will do.

Click here to download CEFIC CEO’s Open Letter to the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament, 5 November 2015.